Friday, March 25, 2011

What Defines Success in Your Life?

My wife Becky and I have this time-honored tradition of sharing YouTube music videos on each other's Facebook wall most Fridays. The song is generally a variation of The Cure's It's Friday I'm In Love, a great song celebrating your loved one on Fridays. We've sent each other the original, plus variations of the song ranging from bluegrass, country, folk, and all points in between.

Today, being the comedian that I am, I posted the song Friday by Rebecca Black. Ms. Black is probably a talented young lady, but her song Friday is pretty rough on the ears. It somehow went viral a couple of weeks ago, and the video on YouTube currently has over 47 million views. That puts this video in the top 200 most-watched videos of all time on YouTube (in just 6 weeks mind you)! If you must, you can watch the video by clicking here.

That's quite an accomplishment, right? To go from relative obscurity to an overnight internet sensation? To be in the top 200 videos viewed of all time? The original video to Friday I'm in Love from The Cure only has 6.9 million views after almost 3 full years.

When I'm browsing videos on YouTube (because obviously, I like to maintain a tight leash on my time), there are several things I look for. I like to check out videos with higher view counts, meaning it's probably of good quality and interest to people. The official Friday video has been viewed 47,000,000 times - probably a hit, right?

But another thing I think about, as I am qualifying videos, is the votes from the listening public. Each listener is able to vote and give a video a thumbs up (like) or thumbs down (dislike). For example, the the Cure's It's Friday I'm In Love has a 65 to 1 ratio of likes vs. dislikes.

And here's what might sting a bit for Rebecca - her "hit" video has a 8 to 1 dislike vs. like ratio. That's a ratio I've not witnessed before, especially on such a grand scale. Basically, a ton of people are watching her video, and the majority of people voting do not like it.

What's my point, you say? Well, in your daily life there are plenty of things you can do to make yourself look great. But when push comes to shove, is there a real value to what you've done? What are you doing that impacts other people? What are you doing, or creating, that will have a lasting impact?

II Corinthians 5:9-10 helps us define our lasting success. The passage reads - "So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him. For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body."

My questions for you are these: What in your life are you using to define success? Is it a standard that just doesn't ring true? Is it the number of Facebook friends you have? Is it the lifestyle you are living? Are you searching for validation from people?

True success in this life involves what we are accomplishing for His Kingdom, not ours.